Paul Krugman: "Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain." That's the conclusion of research presented last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As the Financial Times explained, neuroscientists have found that "many children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development." The effect is to impair language development and memory -- and hence the ability to escape poverty -- for the rest of the child's life. So now we have another, even more compelling reason to be ashamed about America's record of failing to fight poverty.
